How to read the papers on... Labour

Not good - great. Except that it's over now. Look for repeat appearances of that old Wilsonian witticism in the next few days' punditry; a week really is a long time in politics.

Still, a bravura platform performance...

Simply (almost) the best. For the Blairites, a great result - not only did their man grab all the front pages, but even the professionally sceptical sketch writers (the Times's Anne Treneman had a particularly laugh-out-loud run of pieces this week) couldn't help acknowledging that TB managed to remind even those who have been busy phoning the removals companies for Number 10 of what they will miss when he is gone.

So why 'almost' the best?

The small matter of the delegate from Arkansas... The Guardian's Simon Hoggart conjured up the delightful image of Bill handing out gobs of ice cream and chocolate sauce to a conference that lapped up each ladleful. The most memorable, and accurate, quote was from a minister who said it was like watching someone make love to 3,000 women at once.

Speaking of women, Cherie got a few headlines

Indeed, she did. Her 'that's a lie' barb, denied by Downing Street and then hilariously confirmed in Blair's 'running off with the bloke next door' joke, certainly hit the mark, stealing the front-pages from that bloke next door.

That would be Gordon Brown...

It would. And the papers made bleak reading for the Brownites. They all pretty much agreed: Gordon's speech was worthy, ticking all the right boxes. The problem was that you could almost see him ticking the boxes. Still, the Times and the Daily Mail seemed fairly happy with the substance of the speech. The Telegraph gushed over it, saying its lesson was 'he was a proven winner and would be a damnably hard act to follow'. But Rupert Murdoch's most trusted political sounding-board, the academic and writer Irwin Stelzer, not only gave Brown's oration a warm review on TV but, more importantly, he has inserted some barbed comments about David Cameron into his last two Spectator pieces. As for the left, the longtime Brown fan Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian said Gordon faced an almost impossible balancing act on the podium, and, all things considered, pulled it off pretty well. He had 'skilfully managed the transition from Chancellor to unofficial leader of the opposition'. If Blair really wanted to help Labour, he suggested, why not overshadow this week's Conservative conference by announcing his departure?